Thursday, March 25, 2010

Earth Hour, Bowling, Warning, Jaime Oliver.

I was delighted to see an Earth Hour poster on the door of the liquor store yesterday, however, it is the only one I have seen. Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 27, between 8:30 and 9:30 when you should turn your lights out to support this international recognition of climate awareness. World Wildlife Canada has a web page about it all here http://earthhourcanada.org/earthhour/ and they are hoping more and more of you will join in. This has been happening for the last three or four years and the numbers of people, businesses and cities participating has been increasing greatly. The more aware we are, the more we will do something about it and the more governments will take notice. Today we go on our travel league bowling in New Hamburg with lunch first. I think there will only be one more of these this season. Pity they are a fun get together. One thing I discovered, I have been taking my blood pressure regularly (three times twice a day) since seeing the specialist, luckily I have just been using my left arm and the muscle is now quite sore (I assume that's what's doing it) so I am pleased I didn't use my right arm otherwise I would have a problem bowling. Of course, some people might say I have a problem bowling anyway LOL. Not that it really matters a damn on travel league days, its all for fun. That is often when you bowl best - the first time I ever had a 600 game was when I was bowling for charity and it wouldn't have mattered if I had bowled really badly. There was a warning on GMA about telling everyone on Facebook that you are off on a trip from now til then. This also applies to Twitter and any other social networking groups on the internet. You are not just informing your friends, you are telling thieves and such people as well. Also there is a device on modern gadgets which will (if you turn it on) display a map of where you are, be it at home or in the mall, if you forget to turn it off, you are giving the world access to your home information and there are people out there you don't want to have such information. There is an article on their web page detailing a lot of the things we are doing wrong with the technology available today http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/social-media-careful-share-twitter-facebook/story?id=10194977 Jamie Oliver was on GMA too today, introducing his new Food Revolution programme where he is trying to do for the States what he did for the UK by changing the food schools serve for lunches, pressuring the government to upgrade the financial allocation. He said they are considering adding $4 billion to the programme and its not enough. They are spending $7 billion a day in Afghanistan and the kids deserve it more. I do so agree. His programme starts tomorrow night at 8 p.m. I for one will be watching. I have a lot of respect for Jamie and what he is trying to do for the children of England and North America so, if you have kids, I hope you too will be watching. Here is one of Jamie's recipes with Prosciutto and chicken or as the name says, posh ham. Looks pretty good and will soon be appearing on our menu. Jaime Oliver's Parmesan Chicken Breasts With Crispy Posh Ham From the kitchen of Jaime Oliver Servings: 2 Difficulty: Easy Cook Time: 1-30 min This is a great way to prepare chicken breasts. The texture of the crisp cooked prosciutto goes brilliantly with the tender chicken. Bashing the chicken out thinly before you start cooking means it cooks much faster than a regular chicken breast. If you can't get hold of prosciutto, then any kind of thin ham, such as Parma ham, or even smoked streaky bacon, will work just as well. Ingredients 2 sprigs of fresh thyme 2 skinless chicken breast fillets, preferably free-range or organic Freshly ground black pepper 1 lemon 1 1/4 ounces grated Parmesan 6 slices of prosciutto Olive oil Cooking Directions Grate your Parmesan. Pick the thyme leaves off the stalks. Carefully score the underside of the chicken breasts in a criss-cross fashion with a small knife. Season with a little pepper (you don't need salt as the prosciutto is quite salty). Lay your breasts next to each other and sprinkle over most of the thyme leaves. Grate a little lemon zest over them, then sprinkle with the Parmesan. Lay 3 prosciutto slices on each chicken breast, overlapping them slightly. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining thyme leaves. Put a square of plastic wrap over each breast and give them a few really good bashes with the bottom of a saucepan until they're about 1/2 inch thick. Put a frying pan over medium heat. Remove plastic wrap and carefully transfer the chicken breast, prosciutto side down, into the pan. Drizzle over some olive oil. Cook for 3 minutes on each side, turning halfway through, giving the ham side an extra 30 seconds to crisp up. Either serve the chicken breasts whole or cut them into thick slices and pile them on a plate. Serve with some lemon wedges for squeezing over, and a good drizzle of olive oil. Lovely with mashed potatoes and green veggies or a crunchy salad! Have a great day

2 comments:

  1. Jo,
    I can't quite get that photo with your recipe of today. The red bit looks like it some body part ...

    Earth Hour passed me by yesterday, just as Europe's return to Summer Time did today. As for Earth Hour, I read about it on the web only today. And as for Summer Time, I forgot about it completely, and again, I read about it on the web earlier this afternoon when I quickly changed the clocks. (I was otherwise engaged you see, as Princess Diana once said ...)

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  2. Grin - the photo was actually the prosciutto I think. Or posh ham.

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